


Last bad guy

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Challenge Response, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-09
Updated: 2009-06-09
Packaged: 2018-12-17 17:19:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11856144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: The last bad guy is gone. There's cake. Why can't the team relax?





	Last bad guy

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

Jack took another sip of beer and looked around the table. They were at O'Malley's celebrating the defeat of Ba'al. Jack had offered to buy and he hadn't disappointed. They'd had steak and couple of rounds of the best beer on tap. They'd had an evening of friendship and conversation. At the moment everyone was well fed, well watered, and feeling no pain.

Carter sat in one corner of the booth waving her glass around, engaged in a very one-sided conversation with Teal'c who had the good grace to look interested while holding on to his sparkling water for dear life. Mitchell sat in another corner making a valiant attempt to argue the finer points of Chinese culture and language with a Daniel who was loathe to let the man get a word in edgewise.

He and Vala sat on the end seats of the booth. Jack said it was so he could be close to the bathroom because, you know, at his age... Vala had come late and taken the last seat available, the spot next to Daniel, which hadn't surprised Jack too much.

What did surprise him, though, was how quiet she was. She'd eaten her steak, indulged in a beer, made small talk with everyone at the table, but said very little else. Usually, Vala had questions about Earth customs that she'd torment Daniel with, or she had Washington questions she'd torment Jack with, or (and this was the worst of all) she had girly questions for Sam that she'd torment them all with. Tonight, however, she sat quietly, smiling at the chatter around her but not truly participating. Jack caught her eye and raised an eyebrow questioningly. She smiled and with a shake of her head turned back to listen to Mitchell and Daniel who'd moved on to the commissary menu which, they thought, should include steak from O'Malley's at least one a week.

As the evening wore on, the seating arrangements changed. Mitchell and Teal'c went to play a game of pool and Carter and Daniel snuggled in the corner whispering something Jack wasn't sure he wanted to hear. He overheard the words “cheap date” before Daniel snorted and hid his blush in his napkin. Jack liked seeing his kids smiling--and yeah, he still thought of them as his kids, so sue him. They'd grown up a lot since their first mission oh-so-many years ago. They'd all grown up, he realized. He was sitting with genuine, bonafide heroes whose fortitude had saved the planet. Even the new guy, Mitchell, and their resident thief, Vala, had earned that moniker. And today they'd gotten to see the fruits of their labor and at an outrageously long, exceedingly boring de-goa'ulding ceremony.

So why didn't he feel like partying? Jack couldn't seem to relax. He'd had more than enough beer and he was full to overflowing with good food. They'd even had cake, some gooey chocolate fudge thing that must've packed a thousand calories a forkful. The waitress, a cute bouncy girl barely out of high school had asked them if they were celebrating a birthday. They explained they were just celebrating life at which she'd shaken her head and brought them a couple of extra napkins and some water. Maybe a girl that young didn't understand about celebrating life. Jack certainly did. He suspected everyone at the table did too.

He pulled his arms over his head and stretched, hoping to ease the tension in his shoulders. Daniel watched him.

“You okay, Jack?”

“Yeah,” Jack answered with a shrug. “Having a hard time keeping up with all you young 'uns.”

Carter's snort was anything but ladylike. “Thank you, sir. It's been a long time since anybody called me young." She flopped her head down on Daniel's shoulder. “I guess it's always a matter of perspective though, right? To our waitress I must look like a AARP member.”

“Hey, Carter,” Jack said. “Watch what you say about the card-carrying members. How do you think I'm getting a discount on this meal?” Carter snorted again. “Cut her off, Daniel, she's had enough.”  
Daniel laughed and moved the beer glass out of arm's reach while Carter flailed about trying to pull it back. Jack watched them for a few minutes until Carter bumped Vala out of the way so she could join Mitchell and Teal'c at the pool tables. She dragged Daniel with her.

That left Jack at the table with Vala who'd watched all of the proceedings with a bemused but quiet tolerance.

“Don't you play pool?” Jack asked.

Vala started, obviously pulled out of her thoughts by his question. “Oh, no, I play. Samantha taught me the first night they brought me here. I'm actually quite good.”

“You don't have to keep me company, you know,” Jack said, “if you want to go play with the kiddies.”

“I know. I'm not really in the mood tonight.” She rested her cheek on her hand and watched as Daniel lined up a shot.

Jack wanted to make a smart remark about Vala not being in the mood. From what Daniel had told him, Vala was always in the mood. But he sensed something in her voice that made him hold his tongue.

“You missed the first course,” he said, trying not to push. “We had big, deep-fried onions, you know, the ones that look like flowers.”

“They're good,” was all she offered.

“How did your visit with the Tok'ra go?” Jack asked after a moment's silence.

“Fine.”

Fine. Of course she was. As Jack himself was. Fine. Everyone around him was fine as well: Daniel, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, in a stretched-too-thin, try-too-hard kind of way. Jack realized that everyone was desperately trying to have a good time, trying and failing.

Jack didn't know why. They should be celebrating. They'd killed the last of the bad guys and there had been cake. What more could they want? But Daniel didn't really believe it. He'd talked about in the truck on the way to the restaurant. He'd asked, “What if we're wrong? What if Ba'al is still out there?” And Jack had told him not to ruin a party where there was going to be cake. Daniel was a worrier, of course, always had been, but Jack had learned to respect Daniel's instincts. Jack felt an unease prickle along the back of his neck. What if Ba'al the bad guy, Ba'al the torturer was still out there? He brought a hand up and rubbed it along his pectoral muscles feeling the ache from never forgotten wounds.

“Jack?” Vala looked at him steadily, all of her preoccupation gone.

“Tired,” he answered, as good at avoidance as Vala any day. He excused himself to go to the bathroom.

When he got back the seating arrangements had changed again. Mitchell sat holding Vala in a one-armed hug. Daniel sat on the other side of the table in what had been Jack's spot. Sam and Teal'c sat at the back, both of them with their elbows on the table, waiting. No one was talking.

Daniel had obviously been waiting for him to get back because as soon as he saw him come out of the restroom, he stood up and stepped to the side making Jack slide into the spot between him and Sam. Daniel sat down again, blocking his escape. Still no one said anything. The other noises in the bar faded away except for the tiny clink of the knife Daniel was turning over and over in his hands. Jack took it away from him and put it down gently.

“I saw the needle,” Vala said, apropos of nothing. “When they took Quetesh, I remember what it felt like. I know what the host felt.” Mitchell's arm tightened around her.

Jack felt Sam's hand brush against his on one side and Daniel's solid weight press against his shoulder on the other. “Tell us,” he said.

Finis!


End file.
